1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a velvet-type or snap-together fastener web including a multiplicity of locking stems.
2. Prior Art
The term "velvet-type" as used herein refers to a synthetic material made with both a surface of tiny hooks and a complimentary surface of an adhesive pile, used, as in garments, in matching strips that can be pressed together or pulled apart for easy fastening and unfastening.
There have heretofore been known a variety of velvet-type fastener fabrics including locking stems as in the form of mushrooms, hooks or the like for coupling engagement with loops on companion fastener webs. Almost all of the known velvet-type fastener fabrics are of a woven structure with plastic pile threads being cut to form the locking stems. U.S. Pat. No. 2,717,437 patented Sept. 13, 1955 shows one form of such velvet-type fabric. The woven fastener fabrics, however, are relatively rigid and the locking stems tend to be loosened out when pulled by the loops on the other fastener fabric as it is peeled off. The woven velvet-type fastener fabrics cannot be mass-produced simultaneously on a single loom, and hence are relatively expensive.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 47-28255 published Oct. 31, 1972 discloses a warp-knit pile fabric including hooks, which are retained in place by hardened resin impregnated in the knit ground structure. Thus, the knitting of such a pile fabric must be followed by additional steps of dipping the knit ground structure in a resinous solution and thermally setting the resin to positionally fix the hooks.